08 April 2010

I couldn't help but think of Lolita when I first saw the image of Scarlet Keeling. The 15 year old who was raped and killed at the Anjuna Beach in Goa, Feb 2008. According to post-mortem reports, she was administered a cocktail of drugs. The accused, Samson D'Souza, 30, and Placido Carvalho, 42, were arrested a month after Scarlett's death, but are currently on bail and their trial has been delayed repeatedly. In effect, more than 2 years have passed by without any further arrests.
I was at the Goa Children's Court early this week, April 5, 2010 for the first hearing. The two witnesses scurried in like frightened rabbits, while the two accused slithered into the court as if they did not have a care in the world.

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Later in the evening, at a beach where it seemed hard to believe that anything could possibly go wrong, I wondered how many more Scarlets lay there buried deep in the sea.
I guess sometimes, they just let sleeping dogs lie...